Kid Activities, Crafts and Printables for Fun Learning and Creativity

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Fun Food Ideas

 

 

We are concluding The Very Hungry Caterpillar week and I am so sad to see it end. I must say that having a book based theme has been fun and we are going to have to do it again. I am super excited to share these activities with you because we had a blast, and I know your kiddo will too because what kid doesn’t want to play with their food. This mommy says it’s totally okay, and we have 3 fun ways for you to do it.
 
 
Snack
 
Supplies:
Avocado
Small orange
Red bell pepper
Ritz crackers
Small circle cookie cutter
Small food decorations (optional)
 

 
Directions:
1.  Cut the avocado into slices, then use your cookie cutter to cutout circles. I got 10 circles out of one medium avocado. Cut out two eyes and a nose from the scraps of avocado.
 
2. Cut out a larger circle for the caterpillars head and two pieces for the antenna.
 
3. Peel the orange and pull apart the sections.
 
4. Arrange the pieces to form a caterpillar and enjoy. Your kiddo can even help in the preparation. 
 
 
 
Ms. Tiger loves it when her food looks like a picture on her plate. It usually sparks some creativity as she eats her food. This one I have to say is our favorite plate creation so far. 
 
 
Sensory
 

Supplies:
Gather food that the caterpillar eats in the book
Apple, Pear, Plum, Strawberry, Orange

If you noticed, we didn’t have a pear or a plum, so we improvised (partly because mommy didn’t find a pear at the store and because I had spinach and blueberries in the fridge and needed to use them up.) Feel free to just use what you have, it’s going to be fun no matter what. 


 Directions:
1. Let kids explore food, they pretty much do this activity all on their own.

I cut up some of the food, used a skewer to poke a hole in it (just for fun to look like a caterpillar bite), and placed it on a tray. I gave them whole pieces, and some mashed up pieces. The kids examined, squished, mashed, smelled, and of course ate this activity. It was a ton of fun and I loved how we used all of our senses, score for Sensory Play! 

Mr. Tickles loved every part of this activity especially exploring the sense of taste. It was so fun having him join in the fun. I am pretty picky about what activities my little toddler does because I don’t let him play with choking hazards or dangerous products to ingest so this one had his name written all over it.

Art
 
 

Supplies:
2 Tbs. Sweetened condensed milk
2 Small bowls
Red and green food coloring
Large Marshmallows
Skewers
Paint brush 
Crushed brown cookies (optional) 

Directions:
1.  Mix one tbs. sweetened condensed milk with food coloring for each color. (We originally tried plain milk but it was too runny.)

2.  Poke marshmallows onto the skewer. We used 8 marshmallows but ours were a bit less fluffy than usual because the bag had already been opened so you may not need as many.

3.  Paint marshmallows with the colored milk. We let our caterpillar sit for awhile and eventually the milk dried and it wasn’t really sticky anymore. I was pleasantly surprised because as we ate our caterpillar (never thought I would say that), we didn’t get sticky hands. Yummy Marshmallows! 

 
 
We hope you enjoy playing with your food as much as we do.
 

Hey, before you go be sure to check out our Hungry Caterpillar Activity Pack that includes this craft and a total of 100 pages of language activities, math activities, science activities, and more.

Click Here for Details

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Printable Activity Pack: This adorable pack of engaging activities will teach children letters, numbers, phonics, fine motor skills, shapes, life cycle of a butterfly, nutrition, days of the week, and more. It makes teaching and learning fun and easy. (#preschool #kindergarten #printables #kidsactivities #homeschool)

 

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Comments

  1. Serenely says

    Thanks for the tip of using sweetened condensed milk for the 'paint'. I've used food colouring and regular milk before for another food painting activity but I agree that it will probably be too runny and just soak up in the marshmallows. This is a great idea 🙂

  2. Lauren Brown says

    Love all these ideas! My kids love Eric Carle and they would go crazy over these snacks. Great idea with the sweetened condensed milk, too! I'd be thrilled if you'd link up at this week's Off the Hook!

    • Katie says

      Yay! Thanks so much, I love to hear it when our ideas are being enjoyed by others.